john mclaughlin knows what that's like. he did it in 2004 >> once you're sitting in the chair, there's no one sitting behind you. there's no safety net. so the acting director for all practical purposes is the director for that period of time. >> reporter: can morell, an economist by training, head an organization in the middle of a shooting war? he has been in on the war since it started. as president bush's daily briefer, he delivered that famous briefing in august of 2001 "bin laden determined to strike in u.s. " he was with the president on 9/11, relaying reports from c.i.a. headquarters. he is an analyst, not an operator. but then, neither was panetta who, during his term as c.i.a. director, headed the most successful operation of all: the hunt for osama bin laden. morell was part of that operation, assigned to come up with arguments why the intelligence that bin laden was hiding in a pakistani compound could be wrong. like the president before, this president knows morell. >> the c.i.a. works primarily for the preside